The invention relates to a folding device, especially a folding turret for producing packs, preferably soft-cup cigarette packs, made from at least one foldable blank, said device comprising unilaterally mounted rotating supporting means (folding mandrels) for the blanks or packs.
In the production of certain types of packs, specifically so-called soft cups for cigarettes, the blanks are folded on outer surfaces of folding mandrels in order to form the pack. These folding mandrels are elongate hollow bodies with a rectangular cross-section corresponding to the contour of the pack. The pack contents (cigarette group) are pushed through the inside space of the folding mandrels, which are open at both ends, and into the nearly completely folded pack which is arranged on said folding mandrel.
During the folding or filling process, the unilaterally projecting folding mandrels are continuously moved by a conveyor, especially a folding turret. Because of their specific arrangement (unilateral attachment) and their geometric shape and their dimensions, the folding mandrels are susceptible to mechanical stress. It can not be ruled out that the folding mandrels are deformed in an undesirable manner when the packaging machine is in operation. If these deformations exceed a certain level, they will cause malfunctions in the packaging process which result in the production of defective packs. The packaging machine has to be stopped and the deformed folding mandrels has to be identified and reshaped or replaced. This process is very time consuming.